ch
is eternal life; and to admit a few to that Kingdom who should be able
to teach others. Round this glorious Figure gathered the myths which
united Him to the long array of His predecessors, the myths telling in
allegory the story of all such lives, as they symbolise the work of the
Logos in the Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human
soul.

But it must not be supposed that the work of the Christ for His
followers was over after He had established the Mysteries, or was
confined to rare appearances therein. That Mighty One who had used the
body of Jesus as His vehicle, and whose guardian care extends over the
whole spiritual evolution of the fifth race of humanity, gave into the
strong hands of the holy disciple who had surrendered to Him his body
the care of the infant Church. Perfecting his human evolution, Jesus
became one of the Masters of Wisdom, and took Christianity under His
special charge, ever seeking to guide it to the right lines, to protect,
to guard and nourish it. He was the Hierophant in the Christian
Mysteries, the direct Teacher of the Initiates. His the inspiration that
kept alight the Gnosis in the Church, until the superincumbent mass of
ignorance became so great that even His breath could not fan the flame
sufficiently to prevent its extinguishment. His the patient labour which
strengthened soul after soul to endure through the darkness, and cherish
within itself the spark of mystic longing, the thirst to find the Hidden
God. His the steady inpouring of truth into every brain ready to
receive it, so that hand stretched out to hand across the centuries and
passed on the torch of knowledge, which thus was never extinguished. His
the Form which stood beside the rack and in the flames of the burning
pile, cheering His confessors and His martyrs, soothing the anguish of
their pains, and filling their hearts with His peace. His the impulse
which spoke in the thunder of Savonarola, which guided the calm wisdom
of Erasmus, which inspired the deep ethics of the God-intoxicated
Spinoza. His the energy which impelled Roger Bacon, Galileo, and
Paracelsus in their searchings into nature. His the beauty that allured
Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, that inspired the genius
of Michelangelo, that shone before the eyes of Murillo, and that gave
the power that raised the marvels of the world, the Duomo of Milan, the
San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral of Florence. His the melody that